The journey back to the Scorchfang Citadel was nothing like the escape. Then, they'd fled through shattered tunnels and burning skies. Now, they returned under a twilight that never ended, beneath stars that watched like sentinels.
The Wraithling cut through the atmosphere like a sigh. Its hull shimmered with threads of tethered reality, responding to Ethan's growing control over the System's dimensional framework. He sat at the helm, hands outstretched, not on controls, but immersed in the console's web of light. Every flicker, every warp in space, passed through him.
Aelira stood behind him, her presence steady. Since the Cosmurge's warning, she'd been quiet, contemplative. The weight of the world anchor, of what it meant, settled around them like a mantle.
Below, the Scorchfang Ruins came into view. Once a bastion of power and corruption, now only a skeleton of charred stone and metal. The throne chamber, where Kaelen's legacy had nearly consumed Ethan, lay open to the sky. It was a fitting place to begin anew.
The System pulsed.
World Anchor Synchronization in Progress Site: Scorchfang Citadel (Core Node Rupture) Stabilization Progress: 0.2% → 0.5% Warning: Hostile Interference Detected
"Of course," Ethan muttered. "It's never simple."
Aelira's eyes narrowed. "Something's trying to stop the anchor from forming."
As if summoned by her words, a tremor rocked the Wraithling. Alarms flared. The outer scans blinked with red shapes—entities clawing their way through the weakened dimensional seams.
"Anomaly detected. Multiversal remnants coalescing. Classification: Echo-Beasts."
Dozens of them. Twisted forms that had no right to exist. Wings made of flickering timelines. Jaws that opened into stars and closed on screams. They swarmed around the ruins, drawn to the anchor's energy.
Ethan surged to his feet. "We hold the site. We finish the anchor. We don't let the past eat the future."
Aelira's blade of radiant void-light formed in her hand. "Side by side. Until the last breath."
The Wraithling descended. Aether cannons charged. Ethan leapt from the hatch even before the ship touched ground, boots slamming into ash. Echo-Beasts howled in impossible pitches as he activated Dimensional Anchor, reality hardening around him like armor.
Aelira followed, weaving between rifts, her Voidcaller skill bending space around her movements. Each strike shattered an echo, but more poured through.
Behind them, the anchor pulsed. A spire of light rising from the broken citadel, drawing power from Ethan's will.
Anchor Stability: 4.2% → 6.3% → 9.1% Time Remaining: 6 Days, 21 Hours New Directive Available: Core Nexus Must Be Claimed
They had a foothold.
But to finish what they started, they would have to descend once more into the heart of the citadel—into the broken Core Nexus, where Kaelen's memory still lingered, and where the Axis itself might shift.
"No turning back," Ethan whispered.
Aelira met his gaze. "Then let's fall together, and rise with the world."